Priorities, People

We realize that only a fool argues with his critics, but no one ever accused us of having much sense.

We can't get over the kerfuffle we kicked up (conjured? stimulated? What, exactly, does one do with a "kerfuffle"?) with our relatively innocuous comments about Los Lobos. We hope those guys know what a dedicated fan base they have. The comments have been generally, well, negative, mainly in the vein of "Hey, D*****t, you don't know what you're talkin' bout, Man! Los Lobos rocks, Man! You're not worthy to type their name, Man!" Some of the comments were entertaining, though. We wrote:

"We have this (admittedly unprovable) theory that every band is somebody's favorite (perhaps only the band members' and their mothers', but still)."

Anonymous wrote:

"is [The Solipsist] someones [sic] favorite blog(besides the authors [sic]?"

OK, we had that one coming. Sadly, the commenter began his comment with "does anyone really read ths blog?" Uhh. . . Asked and answered? And, whoever you are, be sure to check out tomorrow's entry on capitalization and proper apostrophe use.

AWWWWWW, SNAP!!!

Seriously, though, consider this:

In the year and a half or so since we began this little project, we have posted on a wide variety of topics, from the sublime to the ridiculous. We wrote what could be considered an apologia for torture. We poked fun at elderly Jews going hungry in the former Soviet Union. We have lashed out at the Tea Party and the fascistic hatemongers pulling its strings. We have repeatedly cast (well-deserved) aspersions on all things Canadian. And we have spent more time than we should have discussing bodily functions best left undiscussed. All this we did with barely a peep from the masses. Yet when we have the effrontery to suggest that Tex-Mex rockers Los Lobos may NOT be the apotheosis of musical virtuosity, we incur the wrath of countless exasperated fanboys. (Well, OK, NINE exasperated fanboys, but that's more than we've had for any other post!)

What's funny about the whole thing is that we really weren't trying to trash the band. Indeed, we said,

"Understand, we have nothing against Los Lobos. From the limited sampling of their music we've heard, they seem like a perfectly competent rock and roll band. They play their instruments well, their songs are inoffensively if unspectacularly rhythmic and melodic, their lead singer has a perfectly acceptable voice. At the same time, though, there's nothing particularly interesting about any of their songs."

Of course, not a rave review, but hardly a condemnation. For all we know, if we listened to a bunch more of their music, we would be blown away--probably not, but who knows. The fact is, LL just happened to be the band that came on the radio and stimulated our thoughts about succesful mediocrity--which was really the focus of the whole essay anyway.

For what it's worth, LL is FAR from the ideal example of inexplicably successful mediocrity.

That would be Tom Petty.

THAT'S RIGHT! WE'RE GOING THERE! YOU GOT SOMETHING TO SAY ABOUT IT HEARTBREAKERS?!? BRING IT ON, BITCHES!!!!

(WOS: For the record, I want no part of this.)